(2017)
Betsey Small (±1805-1847) and Capt. James Small (±1803-1846).
They Also Faced the Sea is the name of the installation at Fishermen’s Wharf honoring the women of Provincetown who endured the days, weeks, months, and years of waiting for word from their husbands, brothers, and sons who ranged the Atlantic coast and, in the case of whalers, the world’s oceans. Few were as devastated as Betsey (Cook) Small. In one blow — the wrecking of the whaling brig Rienzi off the coast of Bermuda on 16 September 1846 — Mrs. Small lost her husband, who captained the ship; her sons Joshua and James; and her brother. Seven months later, she followed them, dying at age 42, “broken hearted at her loss,” as the inscription says on the family vault.
¶ Last updated on 27 October 2017.
Provincetown’s Historic Cemeteries and Memorials, Key O-37, Page 9.